1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oil proper amount informing apparatus for engines, and more particularly to an oil amount informing apparatus that is suitably used for engines mounted on a vehicle.
2. Description of Background Art
It is known to provide an engine mounted on a vehicle with an oil reservoir unit. Oil stored in the oil reservoir unit is supplied to the engine for lubricating movable portions and cooling the engine.
In order to reliably perform such lubricating operation and cooling operation using the oil, it is needed to properly store the remaining amount of oil. For this purpose, an oil level gauge has been provided to check the remaining amount of oil.
Such a check of the remaining amount of oil with the oil level gauge has been generally carried out by pulling out the oil level gauge after the engine has been warmed-up for a predetermined period of time.
However, the method of checking the remaining amount of oil as described above has following problems.
That is, the checking of the remaining amount of oil after the warming-up of the engine for a predetermined period of time is performed for checking the remaining amount of oil more precisely in a state in which the temperature of the oil is stabilized, thereby checking the remaining amount of oil in a state when the variation in volume of the oil is stable.
However, the period of time for the warming-up varies depending on users, and therefore the remaining amount checked oil varies depending on the oil temperature measured upon checking of the remaining amount of oil.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention has been made, and an object of the present invention is to provide a proper amount of oil informing apparatus capable of providing a more simply checking of whether or not a remaining amount of oil is proper even if the period of time of warming-up varies.
In order to achieve the above object, a proper amount of oil informing apparatus for an engine according to the present invention is characterized by including an oil level gauge mounted to an oil reservoir unit; a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of oil; and temperature indicating means for indicating the temperature on the basis of a detected signal of said temperature sensor means; wherein said temperature indicating means indicates an oil temperature in either of a plurality of divided regions, each of which has a predetermined width or range of temperature, and said oil level gauge is provided with a plurality of indicating regions for indicating a proper amount of oil which corresponds to each of said temperature regions of said temperature indicating means.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.